


Peace and Truth

by icandrawamoth



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ahch-To, Closure, Community: fan_flashworks, Found Family, Gen, I'm back on my gen Rey introspection fic bs <3, Introspection, Post-Sequel Trilogy, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Trailer, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-23 20:21:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20346148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icandrawamoth/pseuds/icandrawamoth
Summary: After everything, Rey returns to Ahch-To.





	Peace and Truth

**Author's Note:**

> For fan_flashworks prompt "cave" and fan_flashworks birthday bingo prompt "mirror."

After everything, Rey goes back to Ahch-To. She walks the island paths and looks out over the ocean, and it's strange. At once, it seems like she just left this place and that her first experiences here with Luke Skywalker are in the distant past.

She sheepishly greets the Caretakers, who keep a wary distance, and climbs the mountain to the ancient temple. It looks exactly the same. The Jedi sigil mosaic is perfect. The cliff she and Luke used for meditation is untouched. She lingers there, a hand brushing the rock. This is the last place he was truly alive, but she knows he's not here anymore.

Finally, she goes to the cave. She enters the same way she did the first time, though now it's on purpose – an exhilarating dive into the underground lake. The place doesn't call to her like it used to, but there's something she needs to do here.

Rey pulls herself out of the water and approaches the mirror of stone that shook her so much before. A hand touches the surface, and she's right back in that strange vision. A line of Reys, all her, stretching through time. She's not afraid, but it's no less uncanny. Then, finally, the end, the blurred figure in the stone revealing her own face.

Last time, Rey was devastated not to meet her parents here. Now she feels only calm. In the past, she wasn't ready for the truth the cave showed her, but now it's as a part of her as the Force itself: she is her own person. Who her parents were doesn't matter. Everything that has happened – from helping BB-8 escape Teedo back on Jakku to watching the Emperor's plans finally fail once and for all and everything in between – was all because of her own choices.

The reflection wavers, changing as sounds echo through the cave behind Rey. Her companions have caught up, having taken the longer and drier route, and their faces join hers in the mirror. Finn. Poe. Rose. The little droid who started it all. And around them, indistinct and remembered but no less present for it, all the others, Resistance members and Rebels and Jedi still with them and those passed on.

This is Rey's real family. This is what matters.

Smiling now, at peace with herself and the galaxy, she turns to welcome them.


End file.
